Have you ever wondered why people put a towel at the bottom of a door or what about placing coins in the sink? These are only a few of the easy hacks out there. There are many tricks and hacks to make your hotel stay easier and can help you get the most value with a comfortable setting in your hotel room.
So if you are wondering how you can find more of the best hacks, you need to keep reading because this article is compiled of some of the most helpful hacks. Some you probably never heard of in all your travels. So get ready to be astounded by these creative and unique hotel hacks. Hacks that will inspire your travels.
1. Toothbrush Cleaning Technique
Doesn’t matter how luxurious the hotels are that you visit, your home will still be cleaner because a maid only has a limited amount of time to clean. Usually, the maid has an hour tops to clean a room. Even though the hotel cleaner will give a room sufficient cleaning so that your room smells and looks clean, don’t be fooled by the charade. The hotel bathroom counters are the main culprits of not being clean enough.
So you might want to think twice before you place your germ-free toothbrush on the hotel bathroom counter. Think about it, you have no idea what others who use the same hotel room have done on that sink, which could leave numerous bacteria. Many hotels are notorious for not having toothbrush holders. Here is how you can solve the problem. All you need is a coffee cup, flip the cup down and perforate a hole in the bottom. Now you have a toothbrush holder.
2. Put a Crayon In Your Wallet
This is a good trick that you might want to keep, even after your trip is over. Indeed, you should always keep a crayon in your wallet, or at least in your belongings.
Indeed, you might already carry a pencil with you. The problem of the pencil is that you have to sharpen it regularly. With a crayon, you don’t have this kind of issue. Indeed, most of the time they are wrapped in a paper. You only need to tear a piece of the paper and your crayon is ready to be used. You are ready any time to take notes on the go.
3. DIY Drain Plug
Your day has been chaotic with you on the go and having to transport. Now if you could only take some time for a hot relaxing tub bath and unwind your aching body. You have finally reached your hotel only to find that you don’t have a drain plug. You have your candles ready and waiting along with music playing, but there is no reason for those things now. You’re going to have to take a cold shower instead.
No need to fret over the problem. You can still have that bath all you need is to get a little created with a mini DIY drain, and you’ll be on your way soaking in a warm bath. The first thing is to take a plastic bag from the ice bucket. Next, get a few coins and put them inside the bag. Lastly, take your plastic bag, cover it in the drain. There you have it, your drain plugs DIY.
4. Right Time For Serenity
Wouldn’t you love to fall asleep as soon as you lay your head on the pillow? Sounds like something out of a dream. For too many people reality kicks in when you realize you can’t fall asleep because the environment is still not right for a good night’s sleep. This situation can leave you frustrated when you’re at someplace other than your home.
With so many types of distractions at a hotel, guests find it hard to sleep from anything such as the elevator chiming to people talking in the hallway or even worse, the distracting light underneath your door. All these pesky annoyances can further interrupt your sleep time and cause you to leave a one-star review. Here is a simple hack so you can get a good night’s sleep. You will need to roll up a towel and make sure you leave it wedge under the crack of the door.
5. Do It Yourself Mood Enhancing
Let face it you never know what you are getting with the lights in a hotel. For instance, you might find yourself dealing with harsh fluorescent light. Even if by chance you find you have lamps, but the lamps only come with one switch setting. Never fear you can change the lighting and improve your mood with this hack. You will need a shirt or even some material.
Now you can give your boring hotel room some flair using colored fabric over those lamps. Use caution and don’t use it over bulbs with no covering. You need to make sure the lamp is left on when you leave your hotel room. Remember to exercise caution for this hack because you don’t want to cause a fire. That is a good way to kill a mood.
6. Buttery Delight
Nothing beats the taste of toast bread smothered in melted butter. Unfortunately, when you’re in a hotel buffet setting and among their continental breakfast bars, you will find it hard to enjoy this treat. Mainly because they served the butter not only in small sizes but ice-cold which makes it difficult to spread.
Never fear there is a solution for most problems, and this one can be accomplished with a little resourcefulness. First, take your tiny size butter samples, place them on top of the toaster or some other type of warm surface. For instance, the top of a baking drawer in order to melt and toast your bread. By the time you’re ready to eat, your melted goodness is all done for you to enjoy.
7. The Cool Method
The difficulties of trying not to overspend can become a real chore. Dining out at fancy places has been the highlight of traveling. Unfortunately, dining out for all your meals is not only not practical but pricey. A smarter solution would be for you to bring snacks, drinks, and a few other food items. The problem you will run into if you decide to go this route would be keeping the food from being ruined.
Some hotels offer minibars to keep food from being ruined. Still, other hotels have been known to not have the minibars or worse, no way for you to refrigerate your food at all. Here is an easy hack to get the most out of any ice machine at the hotels. Fill up a non-leak bag over a sink or trash can with ice and there you have it a do-it-yourself refrigeration cooler.
8. How To Keep Those Hotel Sample Shampoo Bottles
The old saying about nothing in life is free applies with hotel settings, especially when you dream about all the goodies you’re going to take away from that hotel you just booked. Unfortunately, those perks may not be as free as you think. Except for a few free accommodations such as breakfast and a dip in the swimming pool, you will find they do limit the items given in your hotel room.
Now that you know you don’t get a free pass to all those perks because they have a limit on what you can take from the hotel, but there are some items you can have. Let’s take your bathroom. Hotels usually fill them with sample shampoos, soaps, and hair conditioners. Those are given to you for free from the hotel. However, don’t even think about running off with their bathrobe, not unless you wanted it added to your bill.
9. Protection Material Against Germs
When you find yourself at a hotel, you’re playing Russian Roulette when it comes to their cleaning habits. You will either get some hard working maid who does a thorough job with your room no different than their own home, or they do the quickest job as they can to finish and get to the next room. So don’t be fooled by how spotless your room seems. Beware of certain objects, they carry a plethora of bacteria.
Although many items can carry germs, let start with the TV remote. Many guests have had their hand over this one item. Here is a tip to keep from getting germs from the remote. You want to grab a plastic bag from the ice bucket. Now cover the remote with the bag. Taking this precaution will keep you safe from feeling unwell and having to see the doctor.
10. Finding Enough Space At The Table
Reality check here. Who hasn’t found their accommodation, not what they were hoping for after viewing the pictures online? Hotels make the pictures look better than the real things. They use lighting, a camera lens, and know how to get the right angle for the shot so that dull room appears to look so much more luxurious. You can’t wait to get that hotel room until you swing open the door.
You can hardly believe how small your hotel room is. You realize the pictures online were false and what’s worse, how are you going to eat in your cramp room. First, call the reception and ask them to bring you an ironing board. The board will provide you with space for dining and also for extra places to put your stuff.
11. Nearby Location For Your Cellphone
Have you ever been to a hotel and wondered where the heck was your phone. We all have been there, but do you know that some hotels don’t have tables on either side of the bed so that you can have your phone close to you? You either have to leave your phone in a place where it isn’t so close, or you have to make a place under your pillow and risk damaging your cell phone.
Since you don’t want to take a chance and damage your phone, there is another answer to this dilemma. One that will provide safety and security for your phone not to mention keep your phone near you. Here is what you do. Unclasp the head of your sheet at the edge and create a level to pocket your phone so that next time you want to find it all you have to do is slide it out from the sheet.
12. No More Cold Slices
Who doesn’t hate to eat cold leftovers for their meal? If you’re lucky, your hotel has a microwave. Unfortunately, you will find some hotels don’t have this accommodation. Now, what, you have to find a way to warm your dinner from the other night, and you certainly don’t want to throughout good food. Never fear, here is a hack to turn that cold, dull pizza into a hot ready to eat a slice of goodness.
First, you need to find out if the hotel you’re staying at has an iron and a blow dryer. Now, you want to place tin foil over the plate of the iron, lay your slice of pizza over the aluminum foil. Turn on the blow-dry and start warming your pizza. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes, and you have a slice of pizza that tastes as if it came right out of the oven.
13. Hack For The Keycard
Hotels used to have keys to open rooms back in the day. They got rid of the old ways of opening a room and now used the keycards. This method saves on the utility bills. Keycards perform its job when you place it into the slot, then it activates your electricity by turning the light on for you. You find these slots for the keycard in a convenient place and next to your room door.
Most people don’t know, but you can use any type of card to activate a room. For example, if you were charging your cell phone, tablet, and other gadgets, the air conditioner was blaring away, and you have the lights on with no desire to turn them off. With everything on, you can use an easy hack by placing a business card or some type of gift card in the slot while you are out of your room.
14. Increase The Volume
If you have never been to a hotel, don’t get your expectations too high about getting surrounding sound or even a Bluetooth speaker for your convenience. Those items might be found if you’re booking a penthouse suite, but not in a hotel. Most guests have to settle for what they can get and usually that is headphones or using your cell phone to play music.
So what if you want to increase the volume? Maybe you’re having a party in your room. Here is a tip to rectify the problem using a bowl or even a cup and cover the item over your phone while playing music. This may not be the best solution, but it will give you a better sound with increasing volume for the music. Always show consideration of the other people in the hotel. Someone else may not want to hear your loud music while they’re trying to get some sleep.
15. Homemade Humidifiers
We all have had sore thoughts and the worse ones are caused by dry air. Because of your hotel room, your entire body feels a lack of moisture and dehydration after only spending a night in your room. Water should be available, but what if it isn’t? You could feel like you’re in some Mad Max movie. Thankfully, here is a tip to keep you comfortable.
For this hack, you will need a towel. Next, you want to soak the towel in water. Leave it over your heater or air conditioner. This way your room becomes moist. Afterward, remove the wet towel and lay it on your luggage mantle, or if you prefer not to use the luggage rack, you can use an ironing board from the hotel.
16. How To Stash Your Cash Securely
Everyone likes to think of hotels as their home while they’re staying there. They want to feel their valuables are safe. However, this is far from the truth. Even with your keycard that you used to lock your room, any staff person has easy availability in your room. Most hotels make sure they hire people who don’t steal, but there is always one bad apple in the barrel.
You want to make sure you don’t leave money around for a thief. A good place to hide your cash is in your hairbrush. It’s not easily noticed. A thief wouldn’t bother to look there. Don’t forget even with a locked door, it will only prevent people who won’t steal from you from entering your room. Keep your valuable safe and make a plan to hide your cash.
17. The Laptop Stand That Will Make You A Fan
In these times we live in, most people find they can’t drop into their bed and fall fast asleep on a pillow easily. Thanks to YouTube content becoming a part of our society, your routine would include Youtbute before any form of sleep takes place. So what do you do when you are at the hotel and there is no place to put your laptop?
Don’t panic and start arranging your bedside table. Be aware that watching a movie while trying to fall asleep on your side isn’t a good viewing angle. The best arrangement so that you get a good view is to take out an ironing board and place it so that it hovers across your hotel bed. Now sit your laptop on top of the ironing board and you ready to view Youtube.
18. Store Your Shoes With This Hack
When you’re staying at a hotel, there are tons of toiletries free for your convenience so you don’t have to hold back. You can grab as many as you like and while you’re at it, ask the reception desk for another shower cap. So why a shower cap? Good question, the answer is to have a place for your shoes.
Let’s say you have been walking through the city the entire day in your shoes. Plus, you have also been on a few sidewalks that you thought looked clean. Guess what, they aren’t clean at all. The last thing you want to do is toss your shoes into your clean suitcase with all your clean clothes. Be aware your shoes are spreading germs and bacteria if you do put them in your suitcase, so do yourself a favor by placing those shoes inside a shower cap.
19. A Spoon Stronger Than A Sword
Have you ever found yourself in this scenario when you have all this luggage and you are trying to bring it all in your room, but the heavy door won’t stay open long enough for you to get all your luggage through the door? Anyone who stays at an hotel knows how frustrating this task can become and to make matters worse the door keeps making those loud noises every time it shuts.
This simple hack will save you from the problem. You want to grab a spoon and cram it under the door. The spoon will keep the door open allowing you to grab your luggage and go in and out. If you don’t have a spoon, try any type of food utensil. A teaspoon will be easy to find at a hotel. Next time you find yourself in that situation, try the hack before blowing your stack.
20. The Best Way To Close Curtains
Most people enjoy the comfort of a hotel. They feel they’re being given the royal treatment while staying there. However, they don’t like the lack of privacy. The lack of privacy usually stems from the thin walls, which serve as an irritating reminder you are not anyone. Another problem with privacy at the hotel comes from the curtain, which seems to always have numerous cracks and giving the outside world a view from your room.
To make matters worse, you can’t go back to sleep because sunlight is blaring through those cracks. You can solve this problem by using a clothes hanger that has clamps. Take your hanger and turn it so that the hanger is sideways and use the clamps to shut out any sunlight or any person from viewing your room. Now you can sleep that extra time without having a rude awakening by the sunlight.
21. Alternative Ways To Use Your Dryer
When you visit a hotel, you know already that their laundry prices can become expensive. At some hotels, they even charge for every stitch of clothing and with such a high price that you could have bought a new outfit. Rather than pay the outlandish prices, some people are forced to hide their smelly socks, shirts, and other items in the back inside their suitcase, which contaminates the rest of their clothes with an odor.
Here is a way you can take those smelly socks out of your suitcase. Use the bathroom sink to wash your laundry. Don’t hang the laundry around your room, thorough. A much easier fix is to dry your clothing with a blow dryer. You can easily dry shirts and socks quickly. Place your socks on the heating coils of the blow dryer then turn on the dryer. In no time, your sock will dry.
22. Sleep Clean Technique
So you managed to drag your luggage into your room. You’re tired, but happy to finally be in your hotel room. You probably throw your suitcase on the bed. You might want to stop and think about this routine. Remember your suitcase has been around the block collecting germs and whatever else. You might want to forgo placing your suitcase on the bed.
A potential solution for the problem is to wipe off the wheels with wipes, but unless you want to spend your time doing something that only solves half your problem, try another approach. Another problem with leaving your suitcase on the bed is you go to the bathroom and leave your suitcase open. The bedbugs will find a new home. A better place for your luggage would be on a chair.
23. Beware Of Room Service
Who doesn’t love getting room service? The temptation of having your meals brought to you seems like a fantasy coming true. This indulgence may make you feel important and up there with the rich because room service has been glamorized by Hollywood and TV shows. However, the reality of room service is far less glamorous.
Room service will cost you. You may end up paying 25 bucks and get only chicken fingers that taste cold since they left the kitchen. Save yourself the money, and go to the dining area. You might save as much as 33 percent or even more from not getting room service. You won’t have that fancy silver platter in the dinner area, but you probably find the food still hot.
24. Cut Out Third Parties For Booking
Places like Hotels.com, Booking.com, and others we all heard about them and their websites look impressive. Anyone would be tempted to use their service for booking a room. The convenience of those booking services would make the problems with having to do it yourself less of a pain, especially if you’re not in your own country. These sites also provide price contrast for different hotels in the area you are looking to stay.
Still, if you go that route, you will end up spending more than if you had cut out the thirty party. Many hotels provide you with discounts and deals if you deal with them on your own and leave out those booking agents. They are only more than willing to give you the match price you found online. Since they can eliminate the middleman fees, the hotels will probably add something extra to sweeten the deal.
25. Make Every Day Your Day
When you budget your money for traveling, you spend some time searching for the right tips to help get the best for your money. To help you escape the tight budget scenario and if you like something more uptown, try telling the receptionist when reserving your room that it is a special day for you such as your birthday or anniversary.
You will have a ninety percent chance that this small white lie will work in your favor, and the receptionist will grant you classier accommodation. This hack will depend on whether your scruples don’t get in the way, but this hack can benefit you and provide you with a swankier hotel room.
26. Band-aide Proof Hack For Your Baby
There was a time people travel to spend some time away from family and others in their lives. Times have changed, and you can now add your children to your travels. Since you’re bringing your baby on all your trips, you may be feeling wary regarding how safe your child will be. You won’t have the same level of baby security that you had in your home.
Your hotel probably won’t have the baby-proof method that you took in your home. They don’t have the time. This is where you become aware of hazards like the door, outlet, and cabinets. Those places are accident-ready to happen any moment. No need to worry. Take a couple of band-aids and you are ready to baby-proof all those electrical sockets. Now that you cover the outlets, you need a solution for the doors.
27. Locks Are Only For Honest People
If you booked a room at a Ritz hotel in London, you can rest knowing that your room is safe from a thief trying to break into your room and make away with your valuables. Still, in those times when you find yourself at a hotel or a crummy motel, the only security will probably be a poor and cheap locking system, which will keep you up at night.
Thanks to this hack, you can get some peace and protection while preventing any thieves from making off with your things. All you need to do is use shoelaces and make a tie on the latch. Now, you have extra precaution and make a thief’s job more challenging. This tip should help give you the peaceful rest you need and not have to sleep with an eye open.
28. DIY Food Boiler
Not every hack in this article will be enjoyable, and the maids probably won’t find your hack appealing either. Not to mention anyone else staying in your room. Still, if you want to remain on your budget, this hack will help you save money. You will have to make your meals. Take special notice of the kettle sitting on the hotel desk.
Besides boiling water for the guests, coffee, and tea, the kettle can perform many functions, including what is happening in the photo. If you like hot dogs, use the kettle to boil the wieners for your lunch or dinner. How about vegetables made into soup? Your room at the hotel can become your kitchen away from home.
29. How To Get Rid Of A Messy Leak
This one happens too many times. Everyone brings their shampoos, condition, and any other hair products to the hotel. They soon discover their suitcase has a dripped problem and is covering their clothes. You may not know if it started from the plane, but the caps on those bottles have exploded and leaked inside your suitcase.
Accident leaks don’t have to become a constant problem. You can avoid these situations and keep your clothing clean by using a few plastics from the hotel you’re visiting. You will need to wrap the cap with plastic. By using this step, you’re saving yourself time and your clothes from a messy situation.
30. Freshen up Your Room
You may have lucked out and booked hotel accommodation at a polish hotel that looks brand new, and the place has a pristine and unspoiled look. However, if you haven’t gotten so lucky but made do with a room at Motel 6 or some other cheap establishment, don’t be surprised if you found yourself not alone in your hotel room.
You will realize you are sharing your room when you turn on the air condition or the heater and suddenly 20 years of mold in the making along with dust accumulation become apparent. You might feel the urge to gag. Instead, take the time and bring an air freshener on your trip. Remember to bring the kind you see in cars. You will need to connect the freshener to the air vent in your room. As soon as you finish, breathing will become better with a pleasant aroma.
31. The Nail and Matches Hack
When you’re in your hotel room, you find plenty of free accessories, all provide for your comfort. Those accessories include robes, slippers, shampoo, conditioners, shower caps, and even a book of matches. Still, the one thing they didn’t give you was a nail filer, which leaves you with a dilemma. How are you going to do your nails?
Despite your best effort to find one in your room, you come up with nothing. Don’t sweat it. You won’t have to wear those nails looking like a hot mess and forget about hunting down a nail filer, or for that matter buying one. Instead, grab the matchbook and use them to manicure your nails.
32. Solution for Your Belongings
Have you ever lost or forgot something and felt anxiety over losing the item? Those feelings can increase as well as elevate your blood pressure. We have all lost things from time to time and felt the emotions from losing them. For example who hasn’t rushed into a taxi or boarded a plane in a hurry only to realize you’ve forgotten something, maybe your house keys or phone charger or worse your passport.
This simple tip will help you never forget your most precious item. Remember the picture? This person did a clever hack by adding keys along with a phone charger together. This way the keys and phone charger would never be forgotten and left at home. This hack will save you from fretting about your forgetfulness.
33. Tip For Door Hinge Bottle Opener
Exhausting can easily set in when you spend a great deal of your time traveling around and especially on long flights. You’re fatigued, and it’s even worse when you have to travel with all those heavy bags. All you need now is to get off your feet, take a break and have a nice cold drink. Too bad you can’t find a bottle opener.
Now, what are you going to do? you searched all over in your room but still, you came up with nothing. You think about going down to the hotel reception room wearing nothing but your bathrobe to ask for one. You even find yourself considering buying one. You don’t have to put that much effort into this scenario. Instead, leave your door with a crack open and make use of the hinges to take off the bottle lid.
34. Dinner is Serve
Traveling by yourself is expensive enough, but when you have other people with you, then the travel expense gets even bigger. Those bills can pile up before you know it since you’re traveling with your significant other and the kids. Expect no excitement about coming with you after being stuck in some hotel with poor hotel lodging. You and your family deserve something better.
Of course, your bank account won’t like the extra expense so in the future leaving off a few meals while traveling may become necessary. Your problem now is the limited table space. Here is how you solve the problem. Get your kids to sit on the floor undo the ironing board and use it for a place for them to eat off.
35. Another Open Door Solution Part II
Your hotel room door can become a problem-filled with headaches. Like the scenario mentioned earlier when you are trying to handle many types of luggage while standing in the hallway, the only thing you have on your mind is how you are going to stop the door from shutting in your face. Only this time you can’t find a spoon to leave under the door.
A hopeless feeling settles on you, and you want to do one thing, give up, but wait there’s still a chance. Step 1. Find a hanger and latch an end onto your closet pole and use the other end too attached to the door latch. This idea may be better than cramming a spoon or even a fork to keep your door from closing.
36. Update Your Phone
One thing about hotels they come in all sizes, shapes, and forms. Don’t be surprised if you are astounded by your hotel accommodation. Some go way beyond what you were expecting. While other hotels, well, let’s just say they are real letdowns. The hotel room looks excellent in those photos they showed online. When you are in the room, though, you will find the reality is a big disappointment.
Once you make yourself at home, you will find plenty of missing essentials, including an outlet to charge all your devices. You don’t even have a place to charge your phone! Don’t worry, as long as your room has a television you are all set. Here’s what you do: look on the back of your television and locate a USB port. Most TV nowadays comes with a USB port to charge any device.
37. Bates Motel Better Than These Hotels
The last thing you expect when you check into a hotel is more stressed on your business trip or vacation. You want a hotel where you can enjoy yourself and relax. Many hotels make it their goal to provide you with a way to feel like you were at home. They present you with a nearly perfect experience while you are away from your home. Still, not all hotels are up to the part.
Some hotels are so bad they make Norman Bates motel look like a palace. That is why these hotels make the list of some of the worst hotels. They fail so badly that you either have to laugh from the shock, or you’ll feel like crying about the disappointing experience you expected for your dream vacation.
38. A Call For Help
At some time in your life, you probably have found yourself in a scenario that you already knew what you needed to do to get out of it. Your dilemma gave you certain choices: You could toddle to the nearest toilet paper roll, or left with no choice swallow your humiliation and reach for the only thing left a nearby towel, knowing in the back of your head you will have to destroy it later.
You have one more option, but only if someone is nearby to hear your cry for help. Let’s hope you didn’t lock the bathroom door. Hopefully, this scenario will help you to remember to always check for rolls of tissue before you sit down and do your business, so you won’t have to worry about this situation again.
39. Discovering Another Entrance
So you’re at the hotel where you’re going to spend the night, but now you realize this is the last place you want to stay because there is an emergency. You are already panicking by the loud fire alarm. You have to make up your mind where to run quickly while you can.
You take a precious moment to ponder your dilemma and come up with a decision. Time is running out, so you decide. Your best option is the door to the right. This is the only option because it’s actually the exit. You either take it or start praying some magical door to somewhere else will appear.
40. Regrets
Some trips don’t happen the way you planned them. Take the guy who planned to have a fun time with his girlfriend across the country visiting old friends. What he didn’t plan was getting stuck in his hotel bathroom shower. His girlfriend went for help and called the reception desk. A repairman finally got him out of there, but it took three hours to get the job done.
With all the worries you have in your life, the last thing you expect is to be stuck in a shower. Despite all the planning, you never know what unexpected dilemma will throw off your plan. Oh well, at least the guy in the shower had time to give it all some thought.
41. Finding Your Best Vacation Location
Most parents who make a reservation at places like Motel 6, do so because they believe their kids will get a chance to spend time at the pool and out of their hair. Parents who do book a room at Motel 6 are in for a real disappointment. Instead of a pool full of water, they might find grass complete with a shepherd hook dangling from the fence.
Any parent who hopes their children would stay busy with spending time at the pool and give them a needed break would become disappointed at the accommodation with Motel 6. Still, all is not lost. Perhaps someday in the future Motel 6 will provide better amenities, like a swimming pool that has water in the pool instead of grass.
